BACKERS START NEW BID TO EXPAND BOCA LIBRARY

Tired of putting up with crowding and inadequate shelf space, a group of patrons is launching a campaign in itscontinued fight to expand the cramped facility.

The members are venturing onto touchy political ground. Boca Raton residents turned down a referendum last year to spend $12.5 million to double the size of the library.

That was "Word War I."

Supporting a more modest proposal, the patrons will pound the pavement, and develop a series of public meetings to tout the library's role in the community.

"We think it's one of the underestimated jewels of Boca Raton," said Ralph Kulberg, president of the Friends of the Boca Raton Public Library.

The group faces two sizeable hurdles: economics and politics.

"With economic conditions what they are, we may have a rougher time the second time than we did the first," said Jay Reich, a spokesman for Kulberg's group.

Also, some library supporters continue to hound Mayor Carol Hanson about her recent proposal to beef up the city's police protection partly at the expense of money used to pay part-time library employees.

"They'll need more employees, not less," Reich said. "We're trying to do something, but you wonder if it's ever going to be. There are so many roadblocks."

Hogwash, said Hanson, who last week lashed out at her critics' "petty" politics.

"I would suggest everybody settle themselves down," she said on Tuesday. "I would suggest they pick a better fight."

Other library backers, including Kulberg, agree.

"I wouldn't want to make too much of that," he said. "We don't want to alienate Carol."

Most agree that the library, at 200 NW Boca Raton Blvd., is inadequate. It was last expanded in 1982.

A large contingent of senior citizens packs its benches and chairs every morning. Shelf space ran out long ago, forcing the library to use portable carts as makeshift shelves.

City officials have been working on plans to expand the library since 1990. A survey two years later found that the facility is half the size it should be to meet residents' needs, according to Florida Library Association standards.

Though the city has 15,000 more residents than Delray Beach, it has a smaller library - and Delray Beach also is considering expanding its facility.

Still, a referendum on a $12.5 million plan to triple the size of the Boca Raton library failed by 88 votes in March 1994.

The defeat, however, didn't deter plans for expansion.

The council authorized library officials to proceed with more modest plans that would cost $9.8 million and double the library's size, and the council may hold another referendum on library expansion in November 1996.

The city has several issues it wants to address before making the referendum plans final, including:

-- Hiring a permanent librarian.

-- Buying land near the existing library.

-- Discussing a proposal to develop a system of satellite libraries.

City officials have already begun the process of interviewing candidates for the librarian's job.